Sport

County chasing vital victory in last-eight bid

WORCESTERSHIRE need to defeat Leicestershire at Grace Road tomorrow (10.30am) to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Royal London One-Day Cup after going down to Gloucestershire by five wickets at New Road.

Daryl Mitchell’s side have to overcome the Foxes in their final game and then see how other results pan out next week with several teams still in contention for a last-eight spot.

Fine innings from Tom Fell and Alexei Kervezee were largely responsible for Worcestershire setting Gloucestershire an initial 230 target, reduced to 214 in 41 overs after two rain breaks.

But a career-best List 'A' score of 98 not out from Ian Cockbain helped clinch victory for Gloucestershire with 2.5 overs to spare despite Mitchell McClenaghan and Jack Shantry returning combined figures of 5-78 from their 17 overs.

Fell achieved a career-best List 'A' score of 89, beating his previous highest tally of 74 against Lancashire at the weekend on the same ground, while Kervezee’s 80 was his highest one-day score since June 20 last year.

But there was a flurry of wickets in the final stages of the innings as Worcestershire were bowled out for 229 in 49 overs.

The hosts were put into bat and Mitchell was bowled via the inside edge for two by David Payne.

It became 12-2 in the fourth over when Tom Kohler-Cadmore was run-out for nine by Jack Taylor’s direct hit.

Fell and Kervezee then added 159 in 31 overs for the third wicket.

Kervezee, caught by Gareth Roderick off Craig Miles, made his 80 off 87 balls with one six and eight fours.

Worcestershire were then 171-3 in the 35th over but struggled to build on their promising position.